Musings & Meditations on Perfection, Brasilian Style…

While in Rio de Janeiro last January we came across the following essay in O Globo by Arnaldo Jabor on the search for perfection (in this case the “perfect” wine, a 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc):

“…I examined the wine from all angles and here I struck the truth, cruel and not open to appeal: The wine does not exist. There only exists the IDEA of the wine, an abstract and platonic conception of it. In the case of this wine, the actual wine destroys the imagined wine, the wine we have always dreamed of as it rests in its hollowed place in the cellar promising the multidimensional riches of a metaphor. There it is ALL wines, a promise of enriched life in our hearts. But, presented with the actual wine, life lost its mystery, the wine ceased to be utopian and retained only what is possible. We saw it turn, with clarity and realism, into a mere mortal, without transcendence, just another (very!) delicious wine. In the end, it was proven that it was just another wine, one which we perceive as romantic, gentile, generous and warming but not one sent directly from God. Alas the search continues…”

Now the twist: The essay above was actually written about the unveiling of the derriere of one of the reigning Novella Queens of Brasil, Juliana Paes (who is the cultural equivalent of Halle Barry, Kim Kardashian and J-Lo rolled into one!), in Playboy magazine. Just replace all the references to “wine” with the word “derriere” and to “the cellar” with “Novella” (prime time soap opera) and you get the original. But you DO get the point, yes? But, fear not, faithful WINE EXPO-isti, our search on your behalf never ends (actually, the hunt is the really fun part!). Cheers!